I don't understand why people blame the reporter and accuse him of being a liar, when they don't like what Rip is quoted as saying.

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Cmon Roscoe, don't tell me you 100% believe what a reporter writes down as if it's the truth, lol. You never have some sort of doubt about anything you read in the press?

Btw my posts arent aimed at the reporter just at ppl's reactions.
If Rip said what he said there is nothing we can do about it anyway, so no need to go off on it, just let the Piston organisation handle it.

Cmon Roscoe, don't tell me you 100% believe what a reporter writes down as if it's the truth, lol. You never have some sort of doubt about anything you read in the press?

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I don't trust the press at all.

But I have been reading and listening to Chris for years, and while he is a lousy analyst, he doesn't make stuff up. The guy actually asks an important question, getting to the type of information many of us love to get, and prints the response, and gets demonized for it.

Unless you have some proof that he's fabricated his article (a serious charge that could lose him his job) why do you insist that there is some inaccuracy in what he wrote?

Get it done Joe. We get (IMO) the perfect compliment to Stuckey for years to come, who won't mind coming off the bench until AI is out of town, and get yes.... Even more cap space.

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Lafrentz??? has he even played this year??

If we need to trade Rip and Max, I would look at maybe the Thunder as a trading partner as someone suggested and look at swapping them for Chris Wilcox and Jeff Green.. You are getting a 6'10 C Wilcox who could possibly start and 6'9 swing forward in Green to back up Tay

First, McDyess forfeited nearly two-thirds of the guaranteed $15 million remaining on his contract -- yes, almost $9 million -- in a buyout from the Nuggets.
Then he re-signed with the Pistons for a prorated share of the league's veteran minimum when it was widely presumed he'd sign a two-year deal that would start at $1.9 million (using Detroit's biannual salary-cap exception) and would include a player option for next season. According to figures obtained recently, McDyess appears on the Pistons' payroll at a modest cap number of $600,532, although he is expected to recoup some of the money he surrendered when he enters free agency in the summer.

Lafrentz is a 12.7M expiring. That's all we need from him. Combine with Sheed and AI and we're talking over $48Million in expirings. We could add a max free agent this year AND next year if we wanted (Boozer and Amare?). For this year, we'd essentially be the team we are right now plus Rudy Fernandez, who bring that flat-out deadly deep-ball shooter to stretch the D out for Rodney and AI to wreak havoc in the paint.

As for the Thunder deal. I doubt you'll be prying Jeff Green away. I would certainly go for a Wilcox and Green for that package, but I don't think OKC goes for it. I like the deal with Portland because I think Portland would have good reason to make the deal.

If Darius Miles comes back on the books, Portland needs to keep their cap relief.

And besides, who will sit down so Rip can start? That scrub Brandon Roy?

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Rip/Roy start next to each other at the SG/SF spots. They'll be a little undersized at the 3 either way, but that doesn't hurt in the West like it does the East (w/ Lebron, Pierce, etc). And I still believe Rip @ the 3 isn't THAT bad. It's Prince at the 4 that kills the small ball thing. FWIW, I got the Rip to Portland idea from a Blazer fan.

As for Cap space. With Darius back on the cap they'll be at ~51.8 Million even if they renounce both Frye and Diogu. If the cap stays roughly the same as it is (as predicted) that gives them about $6.2 Million. So, basically the MLE, which they could have even if this deal went down.

Cliff notes version: Blazers really don't have cap space anyways if Miles is back on the books.

I mean when as in the future in the PO's. I don't think it's unrealistic to think this is not a team that's going to go to the finals or that deep into the PO'. Sure anything can happen (and if we make it to the finals, i will be thrilled; I'll probably be drunk and thrilled) but as of right now we don't look like a contender. Now when everyone gets healthy and the SL situation gets resolved it could be a completely different story.

it wasn't for the past few years even though we won a lot of games. heck, even i got bored of the regular season and tried to sell a lot of tickets to the games on my plan because i knew exactly what i was getting every single time. last year my buddy and i actually forgot to go to a game.

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I don't mean winning a bunch of regular season games and then losing badly in the PO's. Of course people stopped caring. It was like groundhog day over and over again. And i think fans are smart enough to realize that Flip wasn't a championship caliber coach and/or that that team wasn't going all the way. It was also the same rotations, the same bench (none) players, etc. Winning did not make us stale. The way we lost every year on repeat did. I mean putting a competitive product out there with a realistic shot in the PO's or at least something people could root for. The fans in DET cheer for defense, effort etc. We kept going further away from that formula and eventually turned into something no one recognized.

It's funny. We're the opposite. This season i have been missing alot of games in favor of going out, sleeping, etc.

But I have been reading and listening to Chris for years, and while he is a lousy analyst, he doesn't make stuff up. The guy actually asks an important question, getting to the type of information many of us love to get, and prints the response, and gets demonized for it.

Unless you have some proof that he's fabricated his article (a serious charge that could lose him his job) why do you insist that there is some inaccuracy in what he wrote?

Good point. No sense in running chat either. There is nothing we can do about the outcome of the games.

CLOSE THE FORUM! IT'S OUT OF OUR HANDS!

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I didnt say you can't discuss it i said "no need to go off on it". Guess i am not as an emotional person as the rest, i tend to be rational (or atleast try to).

For me there is a difference between saying/discussing it wasnt a smart move by Rip and how it will effect his presence withijn the team or just tearing someone apart and flog him till he bleeds.

I haven't been reading or listening to Chris for years, so he could be right about what was being said. I dunno, like i said i wasn't there and at 1 point in my life i just stopped believing ppl who are telling what others say. I distrust ppl, so any report i read i regard as informational or something that could be true, not as something that is 100% true.

Clearly the report gives an indication that Rip aint happy coming off the bench and that he doesnt want to. But so is AI.

I didnt say you can't discuss it i said "no need to go off on it". Guess i am not as an emotional person as the rest, i tend to be rational (or atleast try to).

For me there is a difference between saying/discussing it wasnt a smart move by Rip and how it will effect his presence withijn the team or just tearing someone apart and flog him till he bleeds.

I haven't been reading or listening to Chris for years, so he could be right about what was being said. I dunno, like i said i wasn't there and at 1 point in my life i just stopped believing ppl who are telling what others say. I distrust ppl, so any report i read i regard as informational or something that could be true, not as something that is 100% true.

Clearly the report gives an indication that Rip aint happy coming off the bench and that he doesnt want to. But so is AI.

It is obvious the Pistons are at their best with a bigger lineup -- that is, two traditional frontcourt players (Wallace and either Johnson or Kwame Brown ) and Prince at small forward. It also has been established that the Pistons are at their best when Stuckey plays point guard.

So, that scenario leaves either Iverson or Hamilton to start at shooting guard.

Curry, assuming everybody is healthy enough to play, could choose to go back to his smaller lineup and start all three guards, with Prince moving up to power forward. Or, he could bring Hamilton or Iverson off the bench.

Hamilton has made it known he has no interest in coming off the bench, nor does Iverson. So you can see Curry's dilemma.

Curry has elected not to talk about it until Hamilton is officially back and ready to play.

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Come on guys, don't disappoint me. That AI, what a selfish, cancer, etc. Does he think he's above the TEAM ? Trade him!

If you take a look around the Eastern Conference you will see that Tay is just as tall as the majority of the match-ups he draws at the 4 while giving up approx. 20 lbs. 20 lbs. is a lot to give to someone but with his reach he can counter that at least a little. Rip on the other hand is nearly an inch shorter on average and what's worse is he is giving up approx. 30 lbs. per match-up. He weighs 193 lbs! I found the average weight of a starting SF in the East to be roughly 225 lbs.

Numbers aside, my point is that Tay has the length to at least attempt to guard a PF while Rip has a hard time "D"ing up someone his own size.

We all know what you meant. You're the one person here who doesn't watch the games, forgets they are even playing, can't seem to account for the fact they have been winning, and then proceed to tell us we have no chance.

We all know what you meant. You're the one person here who doesn't watch the games, forgets they are even playing, can't seem to account for the fact they have been winning, and then proceed to tell us we have no chance.

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You know for someone who doesn't watch any of the games i have to say i'm extremely insightful to come up with all this analysis through just looking at the box score.

Guess i am not as an emotional person as the rest, i tend to be rational (or atleast try to).

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Rational is being paranoid about a newspaper report, with absolutely no reason to doubt it?

Wow. Look, McCosky printed/got an answer, the sort of which many of us live and die for. We hate that the reporters softball the team, we hate that no one covers them objectively, digs deep etc. So a guy does his job, does it well, and by all accounts, does it accurately, and you blame him, because Rip says something stupid.

Well, you did claim it was unsubstantiated, then back pedaled. Sorta the same deal as Menace. What you call objectivity, is the radical opposite in this case.

I don't get why McCosky has to be the soft target for Hamilton's and the team's issues. Maybe we should just stop getting any Pistons news, lest there is something for the fans to talk and argue about?